Grŵp Cynghori Technegol TB Gwartheg Cymru: 19 Mehefin 2025

Glyn Hewinson: Chair
Dai Grove-White
Gareth Edwards 
Gareth Enticott
Ifan Lloyd 
Keith Cutler
Robert Smith
Sarah Tomlinson 
Sarah Woollatt 
Richard Irvine
Secretariats

Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) representatives
Badger Trust representatives
Bovine TB Eradication Programme Board Chair
Nature England representative
Wildlife Trust representative
Welsh Government representatives

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting.

The Chair and Chief Veterinary Officer jointly thanked the previous secretariat for their contribution to the TAG and wished them well in their future endeavours. 

The Chair and members confirmed they were content with the minutes of the last meeting. The minutes were agreed for publication.

APHA delivered several presentations, the first presentation was on the topic of: Disease Report Form (DRF) refresh project and source attribution.

The key points were:

• the need to make best use of the information available
• a desire for private vets to be able to access DRF data
• the potential to link this with the TB Advisory Service (TBAS) and Cymorth TB 

The second presentation was: Cluster identification. The points taken were: 

• an automatic early warning system for cluster identification is needed, as much of this currently is more of a manual process 
• Badger Found Dead (BFD) data could be added into the programmes easily if necessary 

The third presentation covered: Data to monitor TB. The points and questions raised taken from this presentation were:  

• what data do we need to monitor progress on the eradication programme?
• what will we use to demonstrate Officially Tuberculosis Free (OTF) status, period prevalence? Discussions are ongoing in England at the moment
• the TAG will think about using tools as outcomes
• there is a need for the publication of a peer review before using the data so there is an evidence base

The last presentation was on the topic of ‘On Farm Slaughter (OFS)’. The points taken from the presentation were: 

• there is a need for direction from TAG on data to collect to form part of the review of OFS
• the Chair of the Programme Board raised the issue of farmers needing to be present at the time of the OFS and feedback she had that they had no option other than to be present. This is an operational issue to be looked into through Task and Finish group
• information on OFS including the poster can be shared on TB Hub and could be the start of uploading Welsh content

The Chair thanked all representatives for their contributions and presentations to the group. 

Representatives from the Badger Trust gave a presentation and Q&A to the TAG. The contents of the discussion involved testing, comparisons of England verses Wales, TB within wildlife including the spread between different species of wildlife and their recommendations going forward. 

The Chair thanked the representatives for their contributions and the time to deliver their information to the TAG. 

The Natural England representative delivered a presentation and Q&A to the TAG on their background, how they work in partnership with Defra and the farming community and lessons learned from culling and vaccination since 2013. 

The Chair thanked them for their input and valuable time presenting to the TAG. 

The Wildlife Trust representative delivered an overview and Q&A to the TAG regarding their role within the UK and Wales federated nature conservation charity, their involvement in trials of badger vaccination on their nature reserve and their stance on wildlife and their aim to find sustainable results to recover nature.

The Chair thanked the representative for their time and for the information they provided the TAG. 

The Chair summarised the meeting by stating there is a lot of evidence and a lot of polarisations within the topic. 

The Chair stated that TAG, in their advice to Programme Board, will not say what intervention should be advised. However, the Chair stated the weight of evidence suggests badgers are involved, but the level of involvement is variable. It was stated there is a need for a comprehensive wildlife policy.

To ensure the end goal of eradication of bovine TB there is a need for evidence. It was stated the position paper written by the Programme Board will provide a strategic picture for new Ministers. The TAG will provide advice relating to evidence if possible. If evidence is lacking, the TAG will state this.

It was stated there is a need for a holistic policy with cattle, people and wildlife included. The current evidence on the role of wildlife is variable. 

The TAG will set out what they know and what they don’t know, they will write a simplified overview and include an ethical framework, but will wait for the Godfray review update to be published by Defra.

The date of next meeting is to be decided offline. This has since been confirmed as 5 August 2025.